In surprise news to some from North Korea, the East Asian country is finally opening up to selected tourists again after one of the world’s longest anti-pandemic lockdowns, but to Russian visitors, rather than starting with the predicted Chinese influx.
Winter sports paradise
Starting on 9 February 2024, a luxury yet family-oriented ski trip to Masikryong Ski Resort close to the capital Pyongyang is the offer from Russian travel agency Vostok Intur. The company usually focuses on trips to China but has now expanded its menu to include a four-day, $750 tour to the North Korean “paradise for winter sports lovers”, as well as museums, temples and a crash course in “Juche” – the North Korean socio-political philosophy of “self-reliance”.
In a defiant sign of just that self-reliance, North Korea has not trumpeted a more general re-opening, despite South Korean estimates that the North’s economy was in recession between 2020 and 2022 and GDP in 2023 was 12% below 2016.
North Korea remains, after all, under a long-isolated and secretive regime. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, limited tourism was allowed and involved heavily-monitored access and activities, with China seen as the country’s economic lifeline and closest international comrade.
“Inter-regional economic cooperation”
The unexpected move follows a September rendez-vous between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a December 2023 meeting between Moscow’s Maritime Territory Administration governor, Oleg Kozhemyako and Pyongyang’s External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho.
The agenda? Not only the “clean mountain air and magnificent views” promoted by Vostok Intur, but rather “inter-regional economic cooperation between the two countries on a higher stage,” according to the Korean state news agency.
Abandonment of South Korean relations
The development coincides too, with the announcement that North Korea is no longer pursuing any rapprochement with South Korea and, worse, has “”no intention of avoiding” conflict or war with the South.
China is still widely seen as North Korea’s best potential source of foreign currency earnings, with Chinese visitors representing 90% of international visitors to North Korea before the pandemic and bringing in between $90 million and $150 million in 2019.
Exchange of weapons?
Yet new ties are being formed between the East Asian dictatorship and Russia. These may not be “as financially lucrative” as the eventual return of the Chinese tourist market, according to Professor Leif-Eric Easley, of Ewha University in Seoul, but fostering the perception of closer ties with Moscow is no bad thing for Un, who likely welcomes the widely-believed analysis that the two international pariah nations are partnering to exchange weapons and technology.
